Conventional satellites may provide broad coverage over a range of populated areas. Because the capability of the satellite is spread over large geographic areas irrespective of the distribution of users who might take advantage of the satellite service, the equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) and gain to system noise temperature (G/T) of the satellite in the direction of any individual user may be limited. Some satellites may “shape” their EIRP and G/T contours to attempt to put higher EIRP and/or G/T over areas such as those with higher rainfall intensity in an attempt to overcome higher rain attenuation. Such measures may not be able to match the variation in population, however.
The Hughes Spaceway 3 Ka band broadband spotbeam satellite may be able to distribute its capacity across its coverage area based on instantaneous demand; however, the technology that enables such flexibility may be very sophisticated and costly in terms of weight and power in the satellite. Spaceway 3 may thus be limited to about 10 Gbps of aggregate throughput. In addition, the demodulation/remodulation architecture may force the fundamental transmission parameters (modulation, coding, framing, access methods, etc.) to be frozen at design time, so the Spaceway 3 may not be able to take advantage of newer innovations in physical layer design.